The Final Destination – Nick Zano

In The Final Destination Nick Zano portrays Hunt Wynorski, a confident ladies man whose friend Nick (Bobby Campo) saves him from a horrific death at a racing track. But as this franchise has indicated before, you can’t cheat Death, as Zano acknowledges.

What is it you enjoy about the Final Destination series?

I don’t really think of it as a horror movie. To me, it’s more of a cat-and-mouse chase with Death. It’s like trying to escape something you can’t escape.

Were you familiar with the franchise before you signed on?

Yeah, the first one left an impression. I think the first one struck a nerve with everyone who saw it. It was the one where the plane crashes. There has to be something about the movies that people liked, because they’ve made four of them, and three of them have done very well. Everybody feels good about this one, it’s hitting a nerve with a lot of people.

How did it feel to do the sex scene in the movie?

You mean, to deliver borderline porn to the masses? That was a weird day on set, we adlibbed a lot, that joke they used was one out of maybe 8 to 16, and it went on and on to the point where I’m like, ‘I don’t know what to say anymore. This is getting obscene. It’s almost inappropriate, let’s wrap it up.’

When you read the script and you saw that your character’s butt gets stuck in a draining pool, did you go, ‘I can’t wait to do this movie?’

Were you good at holding your breath?

I’m not bad, I can do it over a minute easy. But if I flail, we’re looking at 17 seconds. When you’re thrashing around then you need air. But it’s an interesting day of work when you’re passing [the other actors] in the lobby, like, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Oh, I die tomorrow.’ ‘Oh, you’re dying tomorrow, I’ll come by and watch.’ Everyone comes around for deaths, and [are like], ‘That was really good, it looked great.’

What did you think when you saw your death scene?

I’m glad it came across, because a lot of work was put into it. There’s a lot of danger, there’s a good payoff. When we did the pool scene, I was a lifeguard for a long time so I knew all the variables that would get me killed, and I was sitting there like going, ‘Don’t acknowledge them, just push them down, just do this.’ There was a group of stunt guys that were [rugged] men that you didn’t want to look like a total wimp. They would totally make fun of you and tell you how they got stabbed in the bear suit, and I’m like, ‘Wow, sorry that I complained about being tied down in the water. And I’m sorry you were stabbed while wearing a bear suit!’

Were there a lot of stuntmen on the set?

We had so many stunt people that we didn’t even know some of the stuntmen were stuntmen. I think the funniest day was where the crowd disperses in the opening at the racetrack. Everybody’s running, and we didn’t know who were stunt people and who were extras. We’d run and wait off camera and we’d look back and it was chaos. All of a sudden you’d see a woman crack her head, you go, ‘Oh my God, that woman just cracked her head,’ and she gets up and everybody’s like, ‘Yeah!’ (gives high fives). What the hell just happened?

If you knew you were going to die would you just party or would you try to do everything you could to stop it?

I would have to go the sentimental route. I wish I liked partying that much but I don’t, but I’d have to spend it with my family and my friends, people I love, I got to get that last minute of face time with them before it goes.

Now that you’ve done this film do you look at things differently when you go into a room?

Yes, the plane ride to New Orleans, the cast all flew over together, and as soon as we got on the plane, I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. All of you are on this plane? Come on, man. This is the most poorly planned trip – a movie about death, spawned from a first movie [that’s] based on a plan